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What Happened?

President Donald Trump spoke on Monday about the “Unite the Right” and counter-protest rallies that clashed on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia leading to three deaths and 34 injuries.

Trump was criticized by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and other reputable news organizations for his lack of a direct response condemning and naming specific groups involved in the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. According to multiple Associated Press reports, a “Unite the Right” group organized a “White Lives Matter” rally that came into contact with a counter-protest group, which is when the altercations began.

On Saturday Trump told reporters the rallies were an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” but did not specifically name white nationalists or Nazis.

On Monday, Trump told reporters, “Racism is evil,” and “To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.”

Tuesday Trump spoke again to reporters at Trump Towers in New York where, according to the Huffington Post he said, “I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you don’t make statements that direct unless you know the facts,” Trump argued. “It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don’t know the facts. It is a very, very important process to me. It is a very important statement. So I don’t want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts.”

Huffington Post also reported that several current and former politicians condemned Trump’s comments including George Bush, his son George W. Bush, Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and John McCain (R-AZ). Former KKK leader David Duke took to Twitter on Monday after Trump’s speech and said, “It’s amazing to see how the media is able to bully the President of the United States into going along with their FAKE NEWS narrative.”

According to the Associated Press, tension between the two groups grew and led to a few physical altercations until about 1:45 p.m., when a Dodge Charger plowed through the protesting crowd, injuring 19 and killing one, a 32-year-old paralegal from Charlottesville, Heather D. Heyer.

Two Virginia state troopers also died on Saturday after the helicopter they were circling the protest with in Charlottesville fell and burst into flames. At least 34 people were wounded in the clashes, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia declared a state of emergency.

Trump tweeted nine times on Monday and his second to last one read, “Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!”

Trump was referring to criticism from several media outlets claiming he did not come out soon enough with a response condemning the “Unite the Right” rally participants, according to a White House press statement.